Editor’s Note: No Make “A”, Just Ask …

August, 2005

This is the sixth Top 250 I’ve been involved with in some fashion, since joining the editorial staff of Hawaii Business in 1999. Each year’s listing presents its own quirks and challenges. This year was no different.

In 2004, we started asking companies to use Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) for their company’s industry or industries, when calculating gross sales. This led to some differences of opinion, particularly among companies dealing in real estate and hotel ownership and management.

When a reader asked, or when something didn’t look right to us, we turned to our partners at PricewaterhouseCoopers for guidance. This year, Cory Kubota, a senior manager with the Hawaii office, helped us with these reality checks.

What the Top 250 provides is the best apples-to-apples comparison of Hawaii companies by annual gross sales across a multitude of industries. While some real estate companies may argue that their sales volume is the best measure of their business, our advisors say that commissions earned on real estate transactions are the best indicator for the Top 250. In the case of hotel companies, the rule is: if you own it, count all revenues from that property, however, if you manage it, count only your company’s management fees.

The location of a company’s headquarters also makes a difference in the way gross sales should be calculated. Veterans of the Top 250 probably know this by heart, but it bears repeating: if your headquarters is in Hawaii, count gross sales for all of your global operations, however, if your headquarters is outside of Hawaii, count only the gross sales of your Hawaii operations.

Thank you to Ward Research Inc., the Hawaii office of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, researcher Martha Laxson, the Hawaii Business editorial and production team and aio IT Director Dan Cameron for their hard work on this year’s Top 250. Thank you to our readers for your Top-250 related queries. Please continue to contact us with any

questions, especially if you think your company should be surveyed for the 2006 Top 250.

Horn Tooting:

Hawaii Business came home a winner for the second year in a row from the Alliance of Area Business Publication (AABP) editorial and production awards ceremony, which was held in Detroit in June. This year, there were 689 entries. The AABP has a membership of about 80 business publications.

In the open category, against both magazines and newspapers, Hawaii Business received the bronze award for Best Local Spin of a National Business Economic story for “Boom or Bust? How Baby Boomers Will Change Hawaii,” in the May 2004 issue. Also in the open category, our own David K. Choo, won the bronze for Best Recurring Feature for his monthly column “Dining With Dave.”

As always, the final judges of our magazine are you, our readers, so if you have a question, comment or idea for a story, please contact us at